United States v. Roach, No. 14-50260 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, owner of All Metals Processing Company, appealed his conviction of one count of storing and causing the storage of hazardous waste without a permit in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. 6928(d)(2)(A). The court concluded that even accepting defendant's argument based on the technical definitions of “storage” and “disposal” contained in the RCRA, he was clearly engaged in storing hazardous waste in the sealed and intact containers left in the premises at issue. Therefore, it is not necessary for the court to resolve the issue whether, if he had been so charged, defendant could not have been found guilty of both storage and disposal of the containers that were leaking. The court also concluded that, while defendant may have abandoned the premises in which the containers were stored, the containers were not abandoned. Thus, defendant is guilty for "causing the storage of waste" under 18 U.S.C. 2(b). The court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a conviction for storing and causing the storage of hazardous waste without a permit in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6928(d)(2)(A), in a case in which the defendant argued that the statutory definition of “storage” expressly excludes acts constituting “disposal” of hazardous waste, and that he was guilty of disposal and therefore not of storage. The panel held that even accepting the defendant’s argument based on the technical definitions of “storage” and “disposal,” the defendant was clearly engaged in storing hazardous waste in sealed and intact containers left in his former electroplating facility. The panel therefore did not need to resolve the issue whether, if he had been so charged, the defendant could not have been found guilty of both storage and disposal of containers that were leaking. The panel rejected the defendant’s alternative argument that he could not be guilty of storage because he disposed of all of the containers left in the former facility by “abandoning” them in the building in which they were stored. The panel explained that while the defendant may have abandoned the premises in which the containers were stored, the containers were not abandoned, and he is liable as a principal for “causing the storage of waste” under 18 U.S.C. § 2(b). UNITED STATES V. ROACH 3
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